Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Annual December pictures

 Every year, on December 20th, I take the kid's pictures on the couch, on the same blanket (that was a wedding gift) with the same stuffed Santa and stuffed bear. 

Spencer 2020



Elliott 2020


Every year I take their picture wearing jammies in front of the tree.  There is no set December date for this, but I happened to also take it on the 20th this year.

2020

Technically we missed 2011, but Elliott wasn't supposed to have been born yet, I had spent two weeks in the hospital prior to his birth, I had no matching jammies for them, and I was TIRED.

I also blew 2013.  They might have had matching jammies that year (I don't remember), but I didn't get a picture of them in them at any point and I have to use a random picture from Christmas morning for the collage.  This will haunt me for all my days. 

**EDIT**

OK, I posted this and then just stared at the jammie collage, annoyed at how I had messed up 2013. I couldn't handle it, so I opened the December 2013 picture file and went through each day of the month.  I found a replacement.  These are not jammies, but they will work because they match.  We will pretend they were jammies. 




Monday, December 21, 2020

Last week

HA!  I'm back!  You thought I had forgotten and it would be another two months before I posted again, but you are wrong!  I spent *about* four hundred and eighty hours working on writing and transferring goals for the speech therapy supervision job I have over the last 2.5 days.  I'm done now, though, so back to blogging it is!

Last Sunday, the 13th, I drove to three friend's houses to deliver gifts.  By the time I got back home, Michelle- who was stop #1- had driven to my house to secretly leave this. 

This giant mug was on a table in her outside entryway and I complimented it, saying it was so cute and perfect.  After I left she drove it to me with a note saying I can borrow it temporarily until she buys me a new one.  How sweet it that?!

I was wearing a Santa hat while I was making deliveries, but I didn't remember I had Christmas shoes until I was all done. 
The kids took teacher gifts to school on Monday the 14th.  All of the teachers got lip balm, hand sanitizer, and candy.  The women teachers got that stuff in a pencil case and also face masks (skin care, not breathing) too.  The men got something else to even it out as well, but I have no idea what it was!
I keep a running list of new ornaments for the tree and I hadn't updated in for 2020, so I took pictures of everything so that I didn't have to keep walking back and forth while I added them to the word document. 

Both of these are new this year- Baby Yoda and the blue/gold ball.  They aren't actually touching.  It's an optical illusion. 



The left angel and middle angel are new.

These wooden ornaments were new in 2019, and unfortunately I missed writing them down and now I have no clue where they came from.  Did you give them to me?  Please tell me if you did!
I wore a mask, and my hair dresser wore a mask and I got my hair cut and colored on Tuesday the 15th.  I asked Michael to come into the living room with me to take my picture.  He somehow took these on the way and I think they are so funny. 


New hair!

I think it's hilarious that I am growing and coloring my hair into my wig. 

Wednesday the 16th was Elliott's birthday. See previous post about that. 

Thursday the 17th was my last day of virtual therapy until January 4th.  Tracy (the OT) and I did a special craft with a group of kids.

Sparkly hair pin that night.

My school had a virtual Christmas party on Friday morning.  There were competitions for best mask and best hat.  I didn't even place for mask, but I won first place for the hat!



The kids and I went shopping after the virtual party.  I wanted a comparison of what I thought was an appropriate outfit for the weather (cloudy and high 50's) vs what they thought was appropriate. 


When we got home there was a package from my dad's cousin.  She sent me a "middle finger to cancer" statue!  I'm going to paint it pink with pink fingernails. 


She also sent a whole bunch of old family pictures that she found at her mom's house.  There was one of my grandma in 1963 wearing a dress, standing by her Christmas tree.  I had just seen a post on FB with pictures of women in the 50's, 60's, and 70's standing by their trees and I was so wistful that I didn't have pictures of my grandmas.  And then this showed up and it was like a miracle.  Also, my grandma never wore dresses by the time I was alive so this dress is blowing my mind. 


This is a screenshot of the post I saw on FB.  There were some amazing pictures in there. 


But none as amazing as my own grandmother.


My friend Joni said I should stand in front of my tree in a blue dress to compare.  Well, well, well.  It just so happens I did last year.


This was the day before my big, 8-hour December surgery.


My grandma wins.  I lose.

On Saturday I worked on goals for a billion hours.  We had a Christmas themed family zoom too. 

Friday, December 18, 2020

Nine years of Elliott

January 16, 2020

8 years 1 month

Standing on the couch in the living room

February 16, 2020

8 years 2 months

At the park by our house 

March 16, 2020

8 years 3 months

In the entry way to the dining room
April 16, 2020

8 years 4 months
Also 100 months

At the park by our house
May 16, 2020

8 years 5 months

In the car after getting a banana split
June 16, 2020

8 years 6 months

In front of the newly painted front door

(Also, the first time in Elliott's entire life of monthly pictures that he's wearing the same shirt as a previous picture.  And it was in the same year!  February 2020.  Gasp!  The horror!  The failure!)
July 16, 2020

8 years 7 months

In front of the coat closet
August 16, 2020

8 years 8 months

Sitting on our bed
September 16, 2020

8 years 9 months

Sitting in the computer chair in the family room (we have no idea why his eyes were so red)
October 16, 2020

8 years 10 months

In the hallway
November 16, 2020

8 years 11 months

Sitting outside in the new backyard bistro
December 16, 2020

9 years

Standing in the front window

8 years 1 month to 9 years

Birth to 9 years 

9 year block picture


9 years of blocks